Matthew Smith is a second year student at the University of Glamorgan, who ahead of the new university year lays out why he joined and campaigns with the Welsh Lib Dems.
So, why out of all the parties did I choose the Liberal Democrats? Since I learnt that the Conservatives were a core middle class party, and that New Labour had shifted into this area to capture the popular vote. I had become disillusioned with both these parties, and took the apathetic “It doesn’t matter who I vote for, as they are both the same” attitude. I have always been a believer that if Government should keep anyone in its best interests, it should be the people with the least, as the people who have better circumstances are better placed to support themselves. With this in mind, I was especially annoyed when New Labour got rid of basic rate tax, something which abandoned the very people the party was set up to look after. Failed by Labour and the Tories, it was time to look elsewhere.
Fast forward to the European elections, when I started to read up on the Liberal Democrats. Their opposition to ID cards made much more sense than the Conservatives opposition which screamed more of standing against Labour than principled opposition to the issue at hand. I was impressed by Nick Clegg’s performance at a conference I visited in Cardiff out of curiosity. He spoke about reforming care for the elderly and cutting youth re-offender numbers, some of these policies he was trialling in his own constituency, and I felt they were well thought out, constructive policies, unlike anything I had heard from Labour and Conservative.
I was also very impressed with their plans for tax, which were directly opposite to New Labour’s plans. By closing as many tax loopholes for businesses as possible and increasing the LEL instead – I worked out this would mean that everyone I currently work with would pay little to no tax on their earnings.
With this basis for joining I immersed myself in the party by volunteering for them during the elections to find out more. I was very stunned by both how professional and friendly the people involved were, and the more I discussed the party’s policies, the more I liked them. I learnt the importance placed on leaflets telling people what’s happening in their ward (I only had these at election time living in another party’s ward) and saw first hand how well received Nick Clegg’s ideas to reform Parliament after the expenses scandal were.
I now truly believe that Labour and Conservative are not the only option at the next general election, and for me there is only one option, and that is voting Lib Dem.
Matthew Smith was mildly interested by politics as a teenager; entered the world of work only to leave his job to study Politics at the University of Glamorgan.
Related posts:
That’s a brilliant blog piece, Matt! And its great to hear why other people chose the Lib Dems.